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Wormy Situation
Autobot Message: 3/118 Posted Author Wormy situation Wed Mar 20 Repugnus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Text only:) Okay, I've received word that Blurr has apparently gone crazy because he has a worm in his head or something wacky like that. This is, for obvious reasons, not acceptable, so I'm arranging a little field trip back to Pluto to get this all sorted out again. If those naughty scientists are still there, we're going to want to grab them and force them to tell us how to fix ol 'Speedy. The dark, icy terrain of Pluto awaits the Autobots who have set out to attempt to find the source of their comrade's problems. The frigid planet is as it always has been, cold even for mechanical beings such as Cybertronians and extremely dark. The star at the center of the Sol system is but a bright prick in the black sky. Somewhere on the planet lies the abandoned mine that Blurr, Tailgate, and Grapple had been investigating earlier, though that odd energy signature that had drawn them to it was gone. Hopefully Tailgate remembers how to find it, though. "Well, this sucks," Repugnus says as he pushes a cart carrying a strapped down Blurr ahead of himself. There's even a few chains entangling the speedster--probably unnecessary but Repugnus wanted it that way--and Blurr's got some tape over his mouth to prevent him speaking in "Worm tongue" as Repugnus put it before laughing at his own little joke. "Of all the hostile environments I've been to," Repugnus complains, "This is one of the LEAST hostile! I mean, come on, where's the pits of acid and ravenous, metal-eating creatures?" The chronically crestfallen bot plods along after Repugnus, optics downcast, listening to him ramble about the hostile environment. Tailgate's not looking at him, though, He's staring at Blurr unhappily. "I really don't think Blurr is that strong.." he says softly. "You never know!" Repugnus insists with a wicked grin. "He may have gained some weird new worm-fueled strength that we don't know about! Better safe than sorry." He looks about the icy terrain, hand to his chin. "Soooo, Tailgate, where did you see the way to their secret lab was, again...?" The gag and the chains weren't really necessary, as the medics have been doing their best to keep him sedated most of the time. They'd been kind of worried when Repugnus had wanted to take him away from the repair bay for whatever twisted reasons he might have. Anyway, the mines lie ahead, as if waiting for any brave sparks who dared enter the twisting cavern. Tailgate nods ahead at the dark mines and starts walking towards it without further ado. He seems oddly determined now, his blaster discharged, his expression hard and set. Which, one might add, is not the composure someone like Tailgate carried most of the time. Repugnus shrugs and pushes Blurr into the mines, unconcerned as to what may be inside. After all, he's seen far worse than what might be in there... right? The darkness in the mines is even denser than outside, it would seem. The floor is littered with scrap and mangled parts from old mining equipment, and if Tailgate recalls the details from last time, it's even more torn up than before. It looks as if some kind of whirlwind has come through, or something. Even the ground is dotted with cracks and... Speaking of which, the ground gives way beneath Tailgate's feet as he steps inside, sending him tumbling! Tailgate doesn't like Repugnus bringing Blurr in here, especially since he's incapacitated. He watches him disapprovingly but he doesn't say anything. He continues farther down into the tunnel, until the ground gives way under his feet! Had they reached the chasm, and it was now simply covered up? He yelps helplessly before plummeting downward. Repugnus's head snaps back around as Tailgate drops down the pit. He blinks a few moments, wondering what to do. Finally, he shrugs, transforms into monster mode, slices through all of Blurr's bindings at once, freeing him of the platform, transforms back into robot mode, uses what's left of one of the straps to tie his wrists together, then drops Blurr down the hole. Head first. "Geronimo!" Repugnus cries as he jumps in himself. Thank Primus Blurr is in stasis lock because he would be freaking out majorly right now if not. He lands with a crash at the bottom of the chasm Tailgate has just fallen into and lies motionless. Why had Repugnus brought him, again? He'd have to ask another time, when he hadn't lost his mind and when he was conscious again. The two Autobots find themselves in a slightly more tame environment--Tailgate would likely remember it, but again, like the area above, it looks as if a whirlwind had been through there. The spherical comm device they'd used before, well the remains of it, anyway, can be seen in a pile nearby. The floor has been ripped up, and the walls shattered in several places. Repugnus lands solidly on his feet at the bottom--and only by accident fails to land on Blurr--and takes in the situation around them. "Ah, I see what's going on, here. They haven't paid their maid in DAYS! The fiends! Anyway, this look familiar to you, Tailgate?..." As he speaks, he casually hauls Blurr up and onto his shoulder to carry him. Unfortunately he does not fail to land on Tailgate, who is just about to recover from the daze he;'s in from having fallen down into a huge pit. "UNGH." A muffled cry comes out from underneath the stasis locked Blurr. He wouldn't have been terribly surprised if Repugnus had done that on purpose. Then finally, Repugnus lifts Blurr off of Tailgate, and he sits up, half conscious. "Uh..." his helm hurts. "...yes....?" Fortunately for Tailgate, Blurr isn't very heavy for obvious reasons. Repugnus probably did do that on purpose, though. Knowing him. A slight distance down the corridor are the now-ruined blast doors leading to that arena room Grapple and Tailgate had been in before, which is now littered with scrap and mangled bodies of the aliens who had been responsible for this. But perhaps they might find a survivor to interrogate? Repugnus would like that, wouldn't he? Repugnus would very much like to have a survivor to... politely question. As he enters the arena, he whistles as he takes in the carnage. "Nice. Pluto's got no bacterial life forms so these guys are still pretty fresh. Likely will be for a long time. Hm. Well! Tailgate, I'm gonna set Blurr down..." He sets Blurr face down on the floor. "...then I'm gonna see if I can't smell up some survivors!" He transforms then, and glowers. "Oh, right, thin atmosphere. This is gonna be harder than I thought. Tailgate, help me find the jerks! If there are any!" He begins to waddle about the room, glancing to and fro with his x-ray vision, and waving his claws about. The minibot first looks over at Blurr, to make sure he's alright. After a fall like that, who knows, maybe he's damaged! But it looks like he's alright, so he advances into the arena and looks around, a little unnerved by the fresh carnage. He stares around at all the junk lying around arena, and plods along, poking here and there. He finds a partially cracked datapad that looks like it might give them a clue about where those scientists were--or maybe tell them about Blurr's condition? Tailgate dusts it off carefully, ignoring Repugnus for now. Well, Blurr's taken a few dents from the impact of the fall but it isn't anything severe. He's definitely had worse. The room is littered with the bodies of some other mechanical alien, who kind of resemble zerg ultralisks with six legs. The air is indeed quite thin...hard to use your olfactory sensors, but perhaps that won't be necessary, since a slight twitching can be made out on the far side of the room... As for that datapad, it's certainly cracked and cracked badly, and the display flickers off and on. It's going to take some technical expertise to get it working again. But it would appear from what one can see on it that there is a diagram of sorts featuring that hideous creature they'd encountered in here before. Repugnus hmms at the twitching. He glances behind himself to make sure Tailgate isn't watching him--he's busy with something or something--and suddenly flings himself across the room at the mysterious person, claws out. And yet, for all his ferocity, Repugnus is really just trying to tackle the whatever it is and threaten it with his claws. "Okay, talk fast. Who are you? What are you? What happened to our friend? And why shouldn't I kill you?" He examines the datapad carefully, tilting it a little and trying to get a better look at the flickering image on the datapad's screen. Tailgate squints at the diagram, trying to make sense of it. Could it perhaps tell him something about the machine Blurr had been rigged to? Maybe this datapad will tell him where that ice worm thing might be... Hound says, "Argh!" Unfortunately, the datapad is going to need to be worked on by someone with expertise in that field before it can give him anything useful...or perhaps Tailgate himself might try to tinker with it, just to test his luck. As for the alien Repugnus has just pounced, it jumps slightly, startled and terrified at this sudden development. "GGgghhh..." It's probably just some cowardly technician. "P-please...I-I'll tell you everything I know, j-just don't...don't kill me..." The alien begs pathetically. Sit-Com says, "Que pasa?" Repugnus holds his claws up above the alien's head, lip pursed as if pondering. "Hrrrrm, I dunno... Tailgate? What do you think? Should I kill this guy? I don't think he knows anything about worms, or getting them out of the heads of your friends. Like our unconscious friend right over there. Yeah, he definitely doesn't know anything. Death it is!" Repugnus twists and flips around into his horrific creature mode! Hound says, "Never let a gestalt shoulder ram you into another gestalt." Hound says, "It's...not fun." Apocryphacius says, "Do you desire emergency repairs?" Hound says, "Can you do that?" Apocryphacius says, "If you so wish." Hound says, "I don't think we'll have much time. Do whatever you can, but not at the risk of your own safety." Hound says, "As soon as they start firing, get away. Better one of us being a target than both." Apocryphacius says, "If Bruticus realises what I did, I will have more than antagonised him already." "NO!" He's not about to let another innocent someone get hurt again, not on his watch. He rushes in front of Repugnus and grabs his claws, attempting to wrestle them aside. "You don't know that he doesn't know anything!" he cries. He then turns to the technician. "What can you tell me about this creature?" he asks, holding up the datapad. "Can you fix this datapad? Or even better, tell me about the machine our friend over there," Tailgate says, gesturing at Blurr, "was hooked up to." Hound says, "Tch, he went after you instead?" Apocryphacius says, "We have a... >HCK<... history. Involving... >zlrt<... pumpkins." Hound says, "Not gonna ask. Hold on, I'll try to catch you!" "N-no! Please! I do! I know what they were doing, I--hgggnnk!" SHNICK. A blade soars deftly and swiftly through the air, landing square in the center of the technician's chest. A deep turquoise-colored liquid spews out onto Tailgate and Repugnus as the alien is slaughtered quickly. Pathetic coward. Tailgate would recognize the female standing a few yards away, just below where the viewing platform had been, as the one who had appeared to be in charge of the operation that had gone so terribly awry. Funny you should come back here, given what happened to you LAST time. Bug Creature snickers at Tailgate. He was mostly bluffing about killing the alien anyway--at least, while a witness was watching, anyway. But alas, just as Repugnus was about to get some answers, the person he was questioning is killed. Repugnus is mostly disappointed in not being able to complete the mission so easily than he is at the loss of the technician of our course, but it's enough for him to give his slayer an annoyed look when he turns towards her. "Hm. Hey, there, lady! Yes, my friend and I here were looking to ask someone about brain worms?" He glances back at the slain technician. "Yeah, I was gonna ask him, but you kinda killed him. So, you're going to have to tell me what I want to know. I mean, I guess you can refuse, but fair warning: I am very convincing! Oh, and don't worry about little Tailgate down there. I'M your problem now!" Tailgate starts, when the technician is suddenly killed. He deadpans, and sees the female standing nearby. He frowns, but he makes no move to attack her. "Well there aren't anymore ice worms at your disposal anymore, so I don't see why. Speaking of which, where did he go? And why are you still here?" he asks. He arches a brow at Repugnus warily. He doesn't think he's going to get very far with her. She didn't seem like the type who would cave easily. The female laughs diabolically, throwing her head back. Or -what-, Cybertronian? What kind of a -problem- do you think you'll be? Her glowering red eyes focus in on Tailgate, narrowing menacingly. But perhaps we can come to an agreement, eh? You want information about my...experiment, and I--well, I wish to exact revenge upon the one who destroyed one of my greatest works. The alien ignores Tailgate's questions, turning her gaze back to Repugnus. "I'm the kind of trouble that can stretch your dying out over millenia," Repugnus says, grinning with his fanged teeth. "But you probably can't live as long as most Cybertronians so we'll have to settle with a few years, I guess." Despite his threats, he listens to the alien's proposal. "Hnnnh. Yeah, I'm pretty keen on revenge, but usually it's on my terms. And besides, you really jacked up our buddy here. Way we see it, we don't owe you a favor so much as you owe us one." But before Repugnus can further make demands of the female, the minibot interjects. "Alright, we'll bite," Tailgate says without even asking Repugnus what he thinks. "You want us to help you track down and kill the worm. Fine. But you had better hold up your end of the bargain and tell us about how to fix our friend on the way." Hound says, "Oof!" Hound says, "Direct combat against Shockwave, not advised." Hound says, "Hey, are you alright?" She laughs again, taking a step toward the two Autobots. Oh, is that what you think I meant? Ha! No, I'm not stupid enough to go anywhere -near- that dastardly thing, unlike you apparently are! Suddenly, she's right in Tailgate's face. Again, all I want is to exact revenge upon the ones who ruined everything...if -you- and your incompetent friend hadn't destroyed the control array, -none- of this would have happened! Her eyes bore into Tailgate's, radiating a fierce red glow to portray her anger. You let me kill him as slowly and painfully as I see fit withOUT interfering in any way, and I will tell you all you wish to know. Though of course, she doesn't plan on actually giving him any real information. Apocryphacius's radio clicks off. Apocryphacius's radio clicks off. Repugnus says, "Sounds like nothing of consequence just happened!" "Hey! That's not a very nice thing to say--OHHH!" Repugnus says, mock realization playing across his insectoid face. "I thought you were talking about ME for a moment there. You meant the worm thingy! Still, you oughta know better than to describe someone using the word 'dastardly' without being more specific. Soooo. Lady. Who's this guy you wanna kill? Annnd I should advise you that even though it is allegedly a hobby of mine, the senseless torture and murder of sapient beings goes against the Autobot Handbook!" Repugnus says, "Aaaanyway, don't worry about crazy lady, Tailgate. She can't possibly be worse than *me.*" Repugnus says, "Though if she is, we're screwed!" The minibot doesn't move, or look away. "Well I survived." Which was more than Tailgate can say for the rest of the scientists who had been present at the time. "You want someone dead, but you haven't even specified who that person is yet," he says, watching her with an unreadable expression. Tailgate says, "Right. Just don't kill her. Blurr isn't going to get fixed without her." Repugnus says, "Right, right." The female leers at the two of them. Fools! I'm talking about YOU! You and that other Autobot, the one with the crane! She glares straight into Tailgate's optics. The two of you sabotaged the control array! And then the subject turned on us! Don't you -remember-? Bug Creature blinks. "Oh! Well, then, if you all wanted was to murder Tailgate..." SWISH! One of Repugnus's talons lashes out, and it's as if a silver line was briefly drawn in the air between Repugnus and one of the female's arms. "...I'm afaid that I'm wearing my Commander hat and I cannot condone that course of action! And, eh, since I'm told I can't kill you, I'm just going to have to disarm you, instead." He stamps a foot. "There, that might loosen it a bit." Tailgate says, "maybe we are screwed... I really think she is worse than you..." Repugnus says, "Now now, if her arm doesn't stay attached then she will probably be much easier to manage!" Remedy says, "Who's arm?" Repugnus says, "Wish I knew! I think she's one of the weirdos who put a worm in Blurr's brain!" "Well.." Tailgate says, without too much hesitation. "I'd agree to it, but you have to give us the information first. Or we have to find a way for the exchange to happen mutually. Because I think we both know that neither party trusts the other." He glances over at Repugnus, optics flickering in a little bit of surprise when Repugnus talons lash out. Then he just looks over at female alien bravely, ready for anything. Tailgate says, "Don't worry Remedy. We're not coming back until we find a way to fix Blurr." Tailgate says, "We don't know that. She doesn't seem the type to cave easily. And I change my mind about her being alive. We need her not only alive, but coherent and conscious." The alien howls in pain and anger when Repugnus lashes out and slices one of her arms off. Again, the turquoise-colored blood spews out of the severed limb, and it falls to the floor with a clatter. She hisses, furious. Very well, then! I suppose I shall simply have to annihilate -both- of you! And she lunges at Tailgate, sharp blades rising out of the side of her arms. This one is definitely bent upon murdering the minibot. Repugnus says, "Ooh! Well, I dunno if I can keep her conscious AND keep cutting off her limbs!" Remedy says, "Don't have any medics there with paralytics or neural blocks?" The minibot throws himself out of the way just in time. Slag it, they needed to negotiate...! Not try to kill each other, she has information they need. Tailgate pulls out his blaster and shoots a tattered lighting fixture dangling from above, effectively knocking it loose and causing it to fall on the female. His optics scan the perimeter for resources. .. a paralyzing agent would be nice, this is a lab, c'mon, there's got to some around here.. Tailgate says, "But we need her to TALK!" First Aid says, "Wait, what? What are you guys talking about?" Remedy says, "A Neural block below the head will keep her from moving all but her mouth, if done right" "TAILGATE! Get down!" Repugnus yells, throwing himself at the alien at the same time as she tries to skewer Tailgate. His claws pop up almost instinctively, but before he can bring them down on her he forces the talons to snap back into place. "Hnnngh!" he grunts, restraining his killer instinct with great effort, instead just trying to awkwardly slam into her. Naturally, once Tailgate shoots the fixture, he grunts in annoyance and rolls off before it hits him. Tailgate says, "No... but thanks for heads up Remedy. We're in some kind of run down science laboratory..." Repugnus says, "Ahem, yeah, see our earlier report about worms in Blurr's brain, First Aid. We're trying to fix that, but this crazy lady is in the way." First Aid says, "Crazy lady?" Tailgate says, "Not in our way, she's the only way we're going to figure out what's wrong with Blurr!" Repugnus says, "Right, well, I'll just try the Venom Laser and maybe it won't blow her circuits or send her into a fit of permanent madness!" First Aid says, "Who's /she/?" Repugnus says, "Hello if I know!" Tailgate says, "She's the one who kidnapped Blurr and started experimenting on him. She's the only one still alive who knows how to get rid of his psychological condition..." The light fixture crashes down on top of the alien, and she screeches angrily. For a short moment, she's pinned under it, giving the two Autobot precious time to search the lab for anything that might be of use. There are some dilapidated storage cabinets behind them, with various vials of strange liquids, many of them are broken and empty but there are a few that are still intact. Primus knows what's in them, though...the labels consist only of codes only known to those who had created them. First Aid says, "Yes but /who/ kidnapped Blurr and started expe- oh wait it's Buzzkill isn't it?" Repugnus says, "Ha! No, not this time, Buzzkill's too worksbeelike to pull off something this demented." First Aid says, "I dunno she's pretty demented." Tailgate says, "I don' t know if that's a good idea. If her circuits blow or she goes totally binary, we won't get anything out of her." Hound says, "This is getting sticky." Repugnus says, "Well, it's that or I continue chopping off limbs!" Repugnus says, "Bah--just loot the damn place while I figure something out." Bug Creature transforms into robot mode, thinking. He draws his Venom Laser, studying it for a moment, then aims it at the female. "Lady, this gun is supposed to stun Cybertronians. But on somebody like you, well, honestly, I don't know what it will do. It's kind of volatile when used on other races. So I'm going to do something very rare for me, and that's to give you the chance to back down. So what do you say? Stand down, and you might walk away from this." The creature spins and twists about into Repugnus's robot mode! Tailgate hurries over to the storage cabinets, looking over them briefly and obeys, scanning to see if there's anything he recognizes or might be able to use. There aren't very many that vials that are still intact, so he just grabs all the ones that aren't broken. The female finally throws the light fixture off, and spreads her massive, sharp wings out behind her. Suddenly, blades shoot out of the wings, flying toward Tailgate and Repugnus. How's that for an answer to Repugnus' question? Repugnus doesn't dodge--he takes the blades right to the chest. But the Monsterbot is tough enough that, though the blades sink deeply into him, he manages to stay on his feet regardless. "Hnnngh, okay, you were warned! Repugnus Enterprises takes no responsibility if you should suffer the following side-effects--" He fires the Venom Laser into the female's face. "--hair loss, sterility, obesity, depression, circuit blowouts, and of course, pink eye!" "Pug!" Tailgate cries, not even realizing he'd abbreviated his name. "Are you alright?" He runs over to where the Repugnus and the female were engaged in combat, bringing the vials he'd grabbed from the cabinet. He peers at the labels, trying to make sense of them. The labels just appear to be a series of numbers. But what do they mean? Only Primus knew. Or whoever had created them, and he's probably dead. Or the alien Repugnus is fighting, but that doesn't exactly help, either. The venom laser lances across the space between the Monsterbot and the alien. She attempts to dodge, but it strikes her in the side. She growls and draws what appears to be some kind of plasma whip from a holster on her hip. It lashes out as she attempts to entangle Tailgate in it and pull him toward herself. Repugnus says, "Well, that was disappointing. It didn't knock her out. If only Grimlock was around to just sit on her. That would work." Tailgate says, "Well it was worth a shot. At least she isn't dead or stasis locked" Remedy sends Tailgate a manual impact generator Frag, this was getting hard. They needed her alive, coherent and able to talk. Tailgate stumbles as the plasma whip curls around his ankle servo. Repugnus thinks about what he just said on the Autobot frequency for a moment. The Venom Laser didn't stun her, he can't chop her up into too many pieces, and they need her to talk. Maybe he can sit on her? "Nah, that's stupid," he says out loud, shaking his head before he stomps towards her. "Welp, you insist on keepin' on fightin', I'm gonna takin' off dem limbs! And oh lookie, you got wings! Not for long, though!" He tries to grab one of the wings and twist it in the wrong direction. The blades on the wings do cut into his hands, but Repugnus is pain's annoying neighbor and bears it. Tailgate aims carefully with his blaster and shoots the hand she's carrying the whip in, hoping to cause her to drop it... Repugnus says, "Uh, what? Did you just send him a schematic? *What?*" Silverbolt says, "Good work, Autobots." The alien had managed to drag Tailgate across the floor a distance before a shot struck her hand and caused her to drop the whip. But she reaches out with one of her five remaining limbs and grabs the minibot by the arm, dragging him right under her and glaring him straight in the optics. ''I'm going to eviscerate you so very generously that your friends will be unable to recognize your corpse! '' She hisses furiously, raising her bladed arms high. But then Repugnus is twisting her wings, despite the blades cutting into his hands. She howls in pain again and flaps her wings violently, attempting to throw the Monsterbot off. Repugnus says, "I am trying REALLY hard to take her in alive. REALLY hard! But there's no sense in letting her kill you to revive some other Autobot, Tailgate!" Repugnus is flung off and dumped onto his aft. "Rrrgh, that's it! I've had it! I can appreciate someone willing to go to great lengths for vengeance but this is just being stupid, lady! So this is what I'm going to do..." Transforming back into creature mode, he throws himself at the female and begins to brutally slash her over and over and over! "...I am going to cut until you either decide to stop or you don't have any choice but to stop!" Repugnus twists and flips around into his horrific creature mode! When she drops the whip, Tailgate takes the chance and manages to grab it just before she takes a hold of his arm and starts dragging him under her. When Repugnus twists her wings, he lassoes the whip upward and coils it around her neck, jerking backwards to pull it taut. Tailgate says, "... I doubt she'd tell you anything even if I did die anyway." Repugnus says, "That, too!" Tailgate says, "But we 're NOT going back until we find the answer to Blurr's problem. I have to fix this. It's my fault Blurr is the way is right now and ... I'd never forgive myself if he never recovered. Blurr is an important mech around the base anyway, but me... no one would miss me if I never came back..." Tailgate says, "Except for a select few." Repugnus says, "Ah, that's not true. Lots of Autobots are sentimental idiots. Not me, of course, but you get the idea!" Tailgate says, "And how would you know that?" Tailgate says, "Name one person who would sincerely care if I was gone. Sit-Com. That's probably it." Repugnus says, "Because it's one of the number things that disgusts me about you guys. 'Bloo bloo bloo, our least important guy died!' I'm like, so what, but every time it happens the Autobots all start shedding robo-tears." Andi Lassiter says, "Not true, Tailgate." Repugnus says, "...wow, I'm really bad at consoling people." Sit-Com says, "I'm sure more than me, Tailgate." Tailgate says, "Exactly my point. Besides, I honestly doubt half of them know I exist." Sit-Com says, "we all love you." Tailgate says, "That would be you and Fred." Silverbolt says, "Fred...?" Sit-Com says, "Fred the Flatscreen." Silverbolt says, "...?" Repugnus says, "Can we talk about this more after you don't die?" Sit-Com says, "I'll explain later." Tailgate says, "Heh. If." Even as Tailgate uses her own whip against her, the alien plunges her bladed arms downward at his chassis, tearing into the minibot's armor. Repugnus slashes her brutally with his claws over and over again, but she flaps her wings again to throw the Monsterbot off. And it's a good thing she did, too, because just as the female begins to tear into Tailgate's body there is that awful hissing noise the minibot might remember from before, and none other than that horrible wormy monster bursts into the room through an icy wall! Immediately, it dives at the alien with its maw open wide, devouring the alien whole before she could rip Tailgate up! It happens so fast, she doesn't even have time to scream. Once the creature has finished with her, it moves toward Tailgate, looking about to continue on its devouring rampage. But the strangest thing happens. It stops, and what sounds like...well, whimpering--escapes the thing. After a few seconds of silence, it turns and slinks out of the room, leaving through the hole in the ice from whence it had come. Repugnus says, "...see? Still alive!" Bug Creature is again dumped onto his rear, and is about to pop again and resume his attack when he sees that the female has been devoured by the worm! And he's about to go after the worm next before it turns around and leaves on its own. "...huh. That was odd. Either he wasn't that hungry, or something weird's going on with that thing." Tailgate winces as the blades begin to pierce his chassis. He still pulls on the whip, making it dig deeper into her neck armor. The smell of burnt armor taints the air, but she's not stopping. All of sudden, however, that ice worm returns and before he can even react, it has devoured her and slunk off to Primus knows where. "....!" He scrambles to his feet with some effort, trying to follow it, but its already gone by the time he tries to investigate. "...I think it remembers me. Pug, it isn't stupid. I think its sentient and it might.. it might know something." Bug Creature looks after the creature... and the hole it slunk back into. "Really? Well, we oughta follow it, then. Eh, with you in the lead, of course. Since it likes you. Natch." If they'd intended to follow it, perhaps they should have started a few seconds ago. As for the creature... sentient, perhaps--but this time it seemed that there had been something or someone preventing it from devouring Tailgate as well. Speaking of which, movement can be heard from the floor behind them, where Repugnus had dumped Blurr earlier. It would appear that the speedster had come out of stasis lock at some point, and is staring blankly at the two of them. Repugnus says, "Ah, nuts. Blurr's conscious. Good thing I got his hands tied, though." Bug Creature turns verrrry slowly when he hears the speedster coming back to the world of the conscious. "Ehhh... Blurr? How ya doin', buddy? You, uh, feel like murdering us? Because Rodimus would be very disappointed if you murdered us all." Tailgate sighs and heads back over to where Blurr and Repugnus are, picking up the datapad that he'd discovered earlier. The vials he'd grabbed earlier were smashed now, no use taking those back to the base. "We'd better head back. I don't think we're going to be able to find the worm." Suddenly, he feels really odd, because he realizes he's been the one telling Repugnus what to do for the most part on this little excursion. He frowns and wiggles his brow ridges. Blurr just gives Repugnus a completely unreadable expression. Perhaps the Monsterbot had forgotten that he'd gagged him. Probably not actually with duct tape because that likely wouldn't be very effective on a giant robot, but perhaps with an inhibitor on his vocal synthesizer or something. Bug Creature steps towards Blurr very slowly, transforming. "Riiiight... yeah, eh, one second, Tailgate..." And as a matter of fact Repugnus did use duct tape on Blurr--space duct tape, that is, which is way better. But it comes off all the same when Repugnus grabs it by an edge and peels it off. "Soooo. Blurr. If a crow were to suddenly come at you going 'CAW CAW!' what would be your first instinctual response?" The creature spins and twists about into Repugnus's robot mode! "Repugnus.. can we just.. can we go now?" Tailgate says, sounding tired. "If you want to anatognize Blurr you can do that back at the base. Although I wouldn't advise that since he's mentally incapacitated at the moment...." Remedy says, "You wish you had a sledge hammer" When Repugnus takes the space duct tape off, Blurr's expression changes as it seems he's realized that he had in fact been gagged and is still bound. He tries to scramble to his feet but that's hard when your hands are cuffed! But he shuffles backward as fast as he can, away from the Monsterbot. Repugnus says, "Not anymore! The need for a sledge hammer has certainly passed--HEY! Don't make a liar out of me, Blurr!" Remedy says, "As long as Repugnus isn't screaming like a girl, you're all safe" Repugnus says, "I don't scream like a girl, I make girls scream!" Tailgate stares after Blurr. "Blurr..." He says sadly, optics dimming. Repugnus glares as Blurr tries to get away, but Repugnus is on him in an instant and trying to slap the space duct tape back over his mouth. "Yeah, I guess not. We better head back home. Poor ol' Blurr. And here I was, thinking you could be cured right on the spot here. Guess not!" he sighs as he tries to sling the speedster over his shoulder again to cart him back to base. Tailgate sighs and follow Repugnus. "Look...I just wanted to say thanks for coming out here and making the effort to find a way to cure Blurr," he says, "It really means a lot to me." His optics light up a little Sit-Com says, "I wanna be, your sledge-hammer. Why don't you call my name?" "Eh, my evening was free," Repugnus says casually. "Well, thank you," he says very sincerely, despite Repugnus' callous reply. Autobot Message: 3/121 Posted Author Datapad Remnants Sun Mar 24 Tailgate ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was so thankful that I finally got a chance to revisit Pluto in hopes of finding a cure for Blurr's mental malady. I wasn't exactly thrilled Repugnus was going to be the mech to accompany me, but it ended up he was a better companion than Grapple. No offense to the architect, but at least Repugnus wasn't afraid of getting hurt while trying to protect me. Consequently, Repugnus and I ventured back out to Pluto and got in a bit of trouble with the female who had been in charge of the whole kidnapping operation originally. I'd be dead right now, but serendipitously the ice worm returned and swallowed the female whole. Weirdly, it didn't try to eat me. Well eventually we returned to the base with what little we'd found at the laboratory--a cracked datapad I couldn't get anything off of, so I took it to some of the technicians back at the base and had them look at it. Turns out it had some kind of monitoring program on it that was still mildly functional, and it had recorded the events that had occurred while Repugnus and I were there. Furthermore, according to the chronometers, there was was still a faint signal between Blurr and that worm thing. It had spiked right before the worm had been about to kill me, then dissipated. So now there's really only one thing left to do--we've got to track down that ice worm...